Malak Mebkhout — The Third Kind

We live in a culture of collage or sampling. This process has become familiar in many fields of creativity to the point that we don’t notice it. But when you think about them the hybrid elements assume a strange power. Taking as my model the mermaid, a mythological creature half-woman, half-fish, I tried to develop a manual for imagining new kinds of objects. Formed by the joining of two elements of different natures, these hybrids slip incognito in the domestic sphere.

Malak Mebkhout — Piscine(s)

The six carpets inspired by these varied swimming pools are like paintings one could enter and live in, decorative spaces halfway between interior design and scenography.

The Neptune carpet is inspired by the famous monumental swimming pool of Hearst Castle in California. This is given false perspectives through the grid. White arcs recall pool toys and evoke the paintings of David Hockney.

Piscine(s) was awarded a “Bourses Déliées” grant by the FCAC (Fonds cantonal d’art contemporain) in 2014, and exhibited as part of the group show “Bourses Déliées 2016” at Flux Laboratory Geneva from 6 until 20 October, and at Flux Laboratory Zürich from 26 October until 25 November.